Laceyiam/Calendar and time

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Time expressions in the Laceyiami language need understanding of the timekeeping system of the Chlegdarims. The Chlegdarim calendar (Chlegdarimė ṣāthąjyðlīne) is a lunisolar calendar and is one of two timekeeping systems used officially on Calémere, the other one being the standard Western calendar used by the majority of nations. Despite being used only in five countries (Laltīmāhia, Brono, Fathan, iKalurilut, and Mǎng Tì pọk), it is the timekeeping system for roughly a quarter of the planet's population, the vast majority in Laltīmāhia.

In this article Laceyiami names will be used, but the languages of the other countries all follow the same system.

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The solar and sidereal year of Calémere (in Laceyiam ārita) is 418 days long, and this period is divided, in the Chlegdarim calendar, in fourteen mostly arbitrary months (ṭūlia, pl. ṭūliai) which are grouped by season (lāripańjńemė).

As Laltīmāhia, the nation for which the Chlegdarim calendar was developed (even though, at that time in the sixth century of the Third Era, it wasn't politically united), names of months and the seasons they are grouped in are those of the temperate areas in the North, which have four seasons; most of the plains actually have only two seasons and basically all of the Southern rainforest have no seasons at all.

The four seasons the Calendar is based on are autumn (koram), winter (jāmiṣar), spring (bihār) and summer (bølkarim), in the order they appear in the year, based on the northern hemisphere: all areas of Laltīmāhia in the southern hemisphere, including the cradle of Chlegdarim civilization and the Laltīmāhei capital, Kaylamārśikha, are in the equatorial area and have no seasons. The autumn equinox (koraṃdėhileliāyunė) is the first day of the year, and likewise the spring equinox (bihārdėhileliāyunė) is exactly halfway across the year, being the first day of the eighth month. The winter solstice (jāmiṣąlūðiteyūnūt) is on the fifteenth day of the fourth month, while the summer solstice (bølkarhlūðiteyūnūt) falls on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month. The solar months of the Chlegdarim calendar are:

Koraṃheilenu (autumn wind) — 30 days long ; autumn begins on its first day

Nāhieprāṇeya (monsoon period) — 29 days long

Koramimaila (autumn water) — 30 days long

Lahīlechliäðńa (first cold) — 29 days long ; winter begins on its fifteenth day

Chliaðńunūt (coming from cold) — 31 days long

Leliāþātia (night star) — 30 days long

Lauraṭūlia (devotion month) — 30 days long

Lahīlehälńah (first seed) — 30 days long ; spring begins on its first day

Daśaṃhjøðam (hand of rain) — 30 days long

Kaiḍasteyū (golden sun) — 29 days long

Kāmilęe Lairė (blue sky) — 30 days long ; summer begins on its thirteenth day

Halėhīlāmi (fields' heat) — 29 days long

Jėliṇṭūlia (fruit month) — 31 days long

Cāṃkrahälńah (last seed) — 30 days long

As a comparison with the Western calendar used in most of the planet, the first day of Koraṃheilenu is the eighth day of the eleventh Western month; the first day of the Western year is the 24th day of Lahīlechliäðńa.

The lunar element of the Chlegdarim calendar is important in marking the closest equivalent to a week. It should be noted that this division, formerly purely astronomical, is now mostly bureaucratic and does not correspond to astronomical values; therefore solar days and lunar days, as far as the calendar is concerned, are both equal.

A lunar month (huldėvyāṣa) is a fixed 34-day division parallel to the fourteen solar months described above. Every lunar month is divided in jamblā (pl. jamblai), which is the "fixed" 24-hour bureaucratic lunar day (as opposed to ilėṃṣātheya, the astronomical lunar day of variable length), which is equivalent to the solar day, and jamblai are grouped in two periods called lulardulat (pl. lulardulatai), each one of 17 days, half of the lunar month. lulardulatai are the closest equivalent of a "week" in the Chlegdarim calendar; they are astronomically based on lunar phases, and are called respectively hjärlīltenia (from new to full moon) and khārhjärinia.

The fifth, sixth, eleventh, twelfth, and seventeenth days of each lulardulat are the rest days, though it is commonplace to work at least in the mornings of the fifth, eleventh, and seventeenth days; many schools also have lessons (though often a limited amount only) on the fifth and eleventh days. In the first, fifth, and ninth lunar months, the first day of the lulardulat is a rest day too.

Every four lunar years, the last lunar month of the year gets a special jamblā (called khārejamblā "new jamblā") after the last day of hjärlīltenia; in addition, every 42 lunar years, the last lulardulat loses the twelfth and thirteenth jamblai, in order to make the last day of that lulardulat the last day of both the solar and the lunar year, as the difference between them is 9.7142 days, amounting to a 408-day difference every 42 years. The last time both years ended on the same day was in 4E 118, fifteen years ago.

The (solar) day (ṣātheya) is the base measure of time, which, like Earth, is made up of 24 hours (pārga, pl. pārgai). These hours are divided in four groups called pārgalīne, each one made of six hours and corresponding to different times of the day. They are leliā (night), mėngerten (morning), dähimmėngerten (afternoon), and sāṣṭra (evening) — they may be referred to either with these simple names or genitive + pārgai (lelei pārgai, mėngerteni pargai, ...).

The first hour of leliā is the first one of the whole day; every last hour of each pārgalīne has a specific name, respectively maimė (dawn), ṣāthedaniūmita (half of the day), lėlið (sunset), and ṣāthecāṃkraya (end of the day).

Every hour is then divided in 120 timeframes called gaṃsstā (pl. gaṃsstai), each one of about 30 Earthly seconds; they are grouped in fifteen pańcaṃteyū (pl. -teyui), each one of 8 gaṃsstai. Every pańcaṃteyū marks the time difference of the caṃteyū (zenith) between a degree of longitude and its following one.

Time expressions in Laceyiam are divided in continuous time and punctual time; continuous expressions are expressed with accusative case, while punctual time with either locative, or ablative plus particles.

Continuous time is expressed with accusative singular in most cases, as there usually is a cardinal number, e.g. ęhię gaṃsstau lehaṃtų — I ate for sixty gaṃsstai. The main exception is where there's no specific time quantity, e.g. pārgarau lehaṃtų — I ate for hours.

Punctual time uses the locative case where the intended meaning is "in a given moment", e.g. 4V 132-ie Galiākie hiṣṭi — he/she/it was in Galiāk in 4E 132. The locative form is thus used for:

L 1.14:0 (L 1:112) — lass danieð lelei jar (it's one to two of the night)

If pańcaṃteyui are not complete, then there are two possible forms: a more widespread one that uses "it's X gaṃsstai to the Yth pańcaṃteyū", and a regional one used all throughout Northern and Northwestern Laltīmāhia and some areas in the northwestern Plains, which uses "it's the Xth pańcaṃteyū with Y gaṃsstai":

L 1.05:4 (L 1:44) — bälie tulūʔendeð lassi lelei jar (it's four [gaṃsstai] to the sixth [pańcaṃteyū] of one of the night)

L 1.05:4 (L 1:44) — gembliende bälienam lassi lelei jar (it's the fifth [pańc.] with four [gaṃsstai] of one of the night)

When hours are inside a punctual time expression, they are read in the locative case, e.g. D 2.09:6-ie yeihāmįtų "at 2.09:6 (2:74) of the afternoon, he was reading" — it can be read in two ways:

danieye nariāmindeð danei dähiṃmėngerteni yeihāmįtų "at two [gaṃsstai] to the tenth [pańc.] of two of the afternoon, he was reading"

kissendie tulūʔanam danei dähiṃmėngerteni yeihāmįtų "at the ninth [pańc.] with six [gaṃsstai] of two of the afternoon, he was reading".